Light Emitting Diode or LED is a semiconductor light source with two leads. The color of the lights depends on the band gap of the semiconductors. An LED is usually small in area and its radiation pattern might be determined by the integrated optical components. The earliest LED lights emitted infrared rays of low density. LEDs are still widely used in remote control circuits as transmitting elements. The first visible LED lights were of low intensity and limited to red light. The modern LED lights available across the ultraviolet, visible and infrared wavelengths and have high brightness.

Years back, the small incandescent bulbs were replaced by LEDs as indicator lamps for electronic devices. Soon they were packaged into numeric readouts and used in digital clocks. However, LED lights have been improved over time and now they are used task and environmental lighting. LED lights seem to have many advantages over incandescent light sources. They have longer lifetime, lower energy consumption, smaller size, lower energy consumption, improved physical robustness and faster switching. LEDs are now used in diverse areas. From aviation lighting to advertising, automotive and traffic signals and from camera flashes and to general purpose lighting, it is all present. They are powerful even to light up your room and relatively cheaper. Besides, LED lighting requires more precise heat and current management compared to those of fluorescent lamp sources. Their high switching rates have allowed new video displays, new texts and advanced communications technology to take a completely new outlook.

Types of LED lights

LED Lighting in the United Kingdom is the threshold of a rapidly changing market. Here you get various kinds of LEDs for outdoor lighting, interior lighting and architectural lighting. The advancements in LEDs in UK have lived influencing the sizes, shapes and the formats of circuit for mounting the LEDs.

Miniature LEDs are the ones that you come across every day as indicators in your television sets, mobile phones and other wide ranges of digital devices. Pre-defined and standard shape and sizes are available to ensure compatibility to circuit boards. They are usually manufactured within the range of 5V to 12V. The best part is their ready to fit mode, which mounts on circuit boards directly. They do not need any additional cooling systems.

Advancements in semiconductor technology have brought in high power LEDs. These have high outputs and are capable of producing higher luminous intensity outputs. High power LEDs come in different size and shapes. The LED strips used in the walls of our room interiors are examples of high power LEDs. They have high heat dissipation and needs to be mounted along with a cooling system like a heat sink.

Application Specific LED on the other hand is manufactured for any particular application in mind. Public displays, digital billboards, bicolor and tricolor LEDs are examples of such applications. While a bicolor LED is two diodes mounted on a single frame, a tricolor LED is mounted on a single frame with 3 pins. Red, Green and Blue LEDs are the ones used widely.